In the Arms of Sleep
by vikung-fu
Summary: [TPM, fluff, Sabe x Amidala] Sabe watches over the newly elected Queen of Naboo as she slumbers.


**IN THE ARMS OF SLEEP**

Sabé watched the newly elected Queen of Naboo as she slumbered, her light brown hair spread out over the fine pillow and her legs pulled close to her chest and hands knotted before her.

It had been six months since the Queen had ascended with the consent and joy of her subjects to the throne of Naboo and, for each night of the past two months, Sabé had attended her sleeping majesty, watching over her as she dreamt.

In terms of age, there was little difference between them; at best, Sabé was perhaps a quarter of a year older. Physically they were also of a similar build although the similarities ended there, Sabé's face being slightly more angular in the arrangement of her features and much leant to expressions of suspicion and thoughtfulness.

Padmé Amidala by contrast possessed a rounder face, her expression gentle...not that it was easy for any outside of her cadre of Handmaidens to know this due to the extensive ceremonial decoration that coloured the monarch's appearance before ambassador and intercessor alike.

Despite their very different faces, it was the similarity of their build and Sabé fondness for mimicry, that had together earned her a place amongst the palace staff. She allowed herself a small smile at this, her firm lips curling upwards.

At school, she had been told that her imitation would get her into serious trouble one day. This had most often been earnestly professed by furious teachers whom she had mimicked. Sometimes it had been in order to cause disruption in classes, other times to gain herself and her friends, Rabé and Saché, passage from the school grounds and access to the city beyond.

As a schoolgirl, she had loved Theed and all its distractions with a passion, whiling away hours in tapcafé bars drinking carbonite chilled muja fruit juice and wake-tea and trading _sabaac _cards with spacers at the port.

The summer of the previous year had been the most wondrous of all her life. Then everything had changed, winter snow had fallen and thawed, exams had been taken (and had mostly been passed) and Amidala had been enthroned as the sovereign ruler of all the Naboo.

Everything had been different from that point onwards.

She remembered registering surprise when palace security had sought her out and requested she attend an interview. She had been even more surprised when she encountered both Rabé and Saché. By the time they had each been offered a position as Handmaidens, she had been breathless with amazement.

Shortly after her appointment, she had begun training, meeting the remaining two girls who had also passed the interview and becoming firm friends with both of them.

In the beginning, Amidala had remained removed from them, appearing from time to time at a distance to observe their training, both physical and, much to Sabé's distaste, scholarly, but slowly, as the days had become weeks and the weeks and become days, the sovereign of Naboo had made herself more accessible to them.

Now, six months into the Queen's reign, they were as close as family.

With the patient smile of a lover, Sabé watched the rise and fall of the other girl's chest, the baggy white pyjamas decorated by pictures of Naboo Royal N-1 Starfighters knotted beneath her and revealing the smooth skin of her stomach.

She murmured in her sleep, her lips opening gently as she moved her head, almost as if to shake it in disagreement with whatever figure she conversed with in her dreams.

Sabé's smile broadened, unable to prevent the sight of the sleeping sovereign before her from stirring something deep within her. Perhaps it was the sense of familial affection she felt towards each of the girls, Handmaidens and monarch alike, or perhaps it was something deeper, something more complicated than even Sabé, the girl with the famously critical honesty and the sharp expression, shied from naming.

A sudden wave of tiredness overcame her and she yawned guiltily. A second sensation followed shortly afterwards and her smile darkened with mischievous intent, a change that certainly would not have gone unrecognised had either Rabé or Saché also been present.

Gently she lowered herself down onto the bed and closed her eyes, her chest flat against Amidala's back and her eyes drawing sleepily shut.

She wrapped her arms around the sleeping Queen, who murmured once but did not resist, and welcomed sleep.

There was no written rule that stated that Sabé had to remain awake during her vigil. There were, after all guardsmen outside the stately double doors, but she also knew that Captain Panaka assumed she would refrain from sleep.

Still, she reflected as sleep settled like a familiar blanket about her, what Panaka didn't know wouldn't hurt him.

Amidala murmured, her hands finding Sabé's. Sleepily, she took hold of them, causing the Handmaiden's heart to flutter suddenly in her chest.

And so, with the Queen of Naboo in her arms and a smile on her lips, Sabé gently allowed sleep to claim her.


End file.
